HC to hear plea today on Sobha's poll victory
HYDERABAD: Two petitions challenging the Election Commission's decision to declare as valid the votes polled in favour of YSR Congress Party's deceased candidate B Sobha Nagi Reddy came up for hearing before a division bench comprising chief justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and justice PV Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday. The petitions were filed by J Vinod Kumar Reddy and another of Allagadda segment.
Another petition filed by YSR Congress Party seeking bypoll to Allagadda constituency also came up for hearing along with these petitions.
It may be recalled that Sobha Nagi Reddy died in a road accident during electioneering in Kurnool on April 24, and has won the Allagadda seat by defeating her nearest rival G Prabhakar Reddy of TDP with a margin of about 18,000 votes.
Senior counsel MS Prasad, arguing for Vinod Kumar Reddy, said that if the votes polled for a deceased candidate were declared as invalid then there is no need for having bypoll because whoever gets the highest valid votes would then be declared as the winner. The Election Commission had declared the votes polled for Sobha as valid though the law itself was silent on the aspect, he pointed out.
The senior counsel also questioned the legal validity of the statement given by the Central Election Commission officials who said that in the event of Sobha's victory in the polls, then they would declare her as winner first and then hold a bypoll for the same constituency again.
Avinash Desai, counsel for the Election Commission, said that the above writ petitions were not maintainable. Section 52 of the RP Act do not provide for deferring the election or substitution of a candidate by an unrecognized party after publication of list of contesting candidates, he noted.
The EC counsel said Sobha had died just before the election and by that time the final list of candidates who remained in the fray was also prepared and the law did not permit them any authority to make changes to such lists in the last minute. Election would be postponed in the event of the death of the candidate of a recognised political party.
News Posted: 8 October, 2014
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